Samsung wins Apple patent case

The latest battle in the Apple-Samsung global patent war has been won by the
Korean company.

It was not a total victory for Samsung, since it was ordered to halt sales of 10 products, including the Galaxy S and Galaxy SII smartphones.

By Andrew Salmon, Seoul

10:01PM BST 24 Aug 2012

Seoul District Court ruled that Samsung had not copied Apple’s designs, but had violated one functional feature, while Apple had infringed two of Samsung’s mobile telecommunication patents.

Both companies were hit by product bans and minor damage payments, but the big issue, at the core of a pending US court verdict, was design.

“There are lots of external design similarities between the iPhone and Galaxy S, such as rounded corners and large screens,” said Judge Bae Jun-hyun. “But these similarities had been documented in previous products.”

Apple was ordered to halt sales of four products in Korea, including its iPhone4 and iPad2, and ordered to pay 40m won (£22,000).

But it was not a total victory for Samsung, since it was ordered to halt sales of 10 products, including the Galaxy S and Galaxy SII smartphones, for copying Apple’s “bounce-back” function, and pay damages of 25m won (£14,000).